Best way to vacation in alaska

Do you often find yourself stuck in a rut of travelling the same pathways? The highways have been well travelled, you’ve been to that park too many times now, and getting away from the city needs to be a priority. Not that this is an unusual feeling. Many people feel like their usual vacation destinations are getting old and worn. The secret to vacationing in Alaska is taking your time, finding the spots that do not overwhelm with tourists, and making sure there is at least one Native American festival included in your itinerary. The best way to vacation in Alaska is to avoid well-worn paths like the cities and touristy destinations. 

Whether you are looking for a week-long trip or a short visit around Alaska, you have to make sure that you are comfortable throughout your trip. When the year is about to come to an end and you start thinking of making vacations for the next season, you might want to consider packing some things and pay a visit to Alaska. As it has already been a trend for many tourists who like going on holidays every year, planning it during winter holidays in Alaska will be one of the best choices you’ll have made in your entire life. Keep reading this article if you want to discover more reasons why you should go on vacations in Alaska during winter holidays.

Alaska is a state situated in Northwestern North America, the largest state in the United States, and home to a wide variety of terrains and environments. The state is likewise native to several different kinds of wildlife, as well as large numbers of fish and sea animals. What does this mean for vacationers? Travelers have an array of options for lodging and outings, many of which take advantage of Alaska’s varied terrain and incredible environmental diversity. For example, take those interested in fishing — Alaska affords them everything form fly-fishing on pristine lakes and rivers to saltwater fishing charters on the Pacific Ocean or Bering Sea. Similarly, kayakers and other boaters will be pleased to find numerous areas in which they can explore the waters around Alaska. In that respect, it offers everything from remote camping on islands to guiding tourists through glaciers.

The best way to vacation in Alaska is by taking a cruise.

Cruises offer many opportunities for fun and exploration, including:

-Take a trip to the top of a glacier (by helicopter) and enjoy the spectacular views of Alaska’s frozen tundra

-Explore the Denali National Park, home of Mount McKinley, North America’s highest peak

-Go whale watching in Seward or Sitka and see humpback whales breaching in their natural habitat

The best way to vacation in Alaska is to visit the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. This refuge is located on the Kenai Peninsula, where it’s possible to see wildlife such as moose and bears, as well as over 300 species of birds.

When planning your trip, consider visiting from April through June or September through October. You’ll have a much better chance of seeing wildlife during these months because it’s not mating season for most animals (meaning you won’t be seeing them mating).

It’s also important to note that Alaska has a very short summer season—it starts in June and ends in September—so plan your trip accordingly!

Air Travel in Alaska

If you’re looking for one mode of travel that can take you all over Alaska, air travel is it. Anchorage is by far the busiest airport, and while its number of nonstop flights to major cities is somewhat limited, you can connect to anywhere in the United States – and the world – with a short stop in hub communities like Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, San Francisco or Chicago. During the summer, you’ll also find “straight over the top” service between Anchorage and a number of communities in Europe. Fairbanks, Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan also have multiple jet arrivals and departures per day, while smaller communities might have a single jet flight per day, or they are serviced by regional airlines using small to midsize planes.

Traveling by Train in Alaska

Unfortunately, the Alaska Railroad doesn’t connect to the rest of the world. But once you’re in-state, its passenger service makes a lovely way to enjoy the city on the rail line heading north from Anchorage to Wasilla, Talkeetna, Denali National Park and Fairbanks; you can also travel south by train to the towns of Girdwood, Whittier and Seward.

Visiting Alaska by Cruise Ship

Cruise ships are by far the most popular way of visiting Alaska, with more than one million visitors cruising north each summer – a number that’s projected to keep rising. The upside of a cruise visit is that everything is taken care of for you; all you have to do is relax, take photographs, enjoy shipboard amenities and hop on the bus for land excursions. The downside is that the cruise ship environment tends to become a bit of a self-contained bubble, so you’ll have to work a little harder to get a true Alaska experience. Start by making it a point to venture a little farther at each port; once you get a few blocks from the cruise ship, you’ll escape the generic shops and booths that cluster near any cruise ship dock and enter the land of authentic, locally owned shops.

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• Cruise ships plying Alaska waters range from the mammoth, hauling several thousand passengers at once, to smaller vessels that take only a few dozen passengers aboard. Keep in mind that there are two major routes here too: Inside Passage cruises tend to stick to the islands and coastlines of Southeast Alaska, while cross-gulf cruises venture across the Gulf of Alaska to ports like Seward and Whittier. The latter route is often paired with land excursions to Denali National Park or Fairbanks.

Take the State Ferry

If you don’t have the money for a cruise venture or want a more up-close and personal experience with Alaska, consider taking the state ferry system. The ferries of the Alaska Marine Highway stop in all the ports serviced by cruise lines, along with a number of smaller and midsize ports that you’d never see from the decks of the biggest cruise ships. You’re at least as likely to meet locals on the ferry as other visitors, and if you plan far enough ahead, you can even take your car along. Just keep in mind that ferry service can be infrequent in the smallest communities, so you might want to plan to stay awhile – a true perk of this travel method for some.

To Alaska by Road

If you have good tires and at least a week to spare, you can drive through Canada to Alaska. The Alaska Highway – or the Alcan, to locals – runs some 1,390 miles from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, to Delta Junction, Alaska. Add the distance from your starting point to Dawson Creek – for example, another 800 miles from Seattle – and you can look forward to at least 2,200 miles of driving one way. But if you love seeing vast stretches of untracked wilderness unspool on both sides of the road, or stopping for herds of bison or solitary bears that stroll across the road, this could be your ideal road trip. Once in Alaska, you can drive to major communities like Fairbanks, Anchorage, Valdez, Seward and Homer. The Inside Passage coastal towns of Haines and Skagway are also on the road system. But for most other Alaska communities, the road simply doesn’t go from here to there; so you’ll need to hop on a plane or a boat.

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• You must drive through Canada to visit Alaska. Although you aren’t technically required to carry a passport for this trip – a combination of government-issued documents that prove identity and citizenship, like an enhanced driver’s license or a birth certificate and a standard driver’s license, are enough – consider bringing your passport anyway. If there’s an emergency and you need to return by air from anywhere inside Canada, you’ll need that passport to board the plane and reenter the United States.

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• Canada’s rules about certain legal offenses, including driving under the influence, are much stricter than those in the United States. If you have a DUI or certain other criminal offenses on your record, you might be turned back at the land border unless you can prove that you have been successfully rehabilitated.